Creating Audio Marble Hornets-esque Distortion

As you all had  better know, Halloween is soon approaching us. What better way is there to start the party early than create horrifying audio distortion?

Step 1: What Do Guitars Have to Do With Halloween?

Now, I know you were probably dropped as a baby, but there is no need to start jumping the gun and asking stupid questions.

The type of distortion I am referring to is the kind seen heavily in the youtube series Marble Hornets. (Which, by the way, if you haven't seen before, I highly advise checking out. Scariest shit of my life.) Even if you haven't seen it, try watching up to Entry #6. If you don't get dragged in, fine, not everyone does. However, it'll at least give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Step 2: The Real Step One

Now, before we begin this, you'll need to download audacity if you don't already have it. (And shame on you for not having it.) To do this, just visit this link. Since audacity runs on all operating systems that I know of, you better use it as a reason to cop out so early.

Step 3: I Skipped the Installation Process, It's Relatively Simple Enough.

I am assuming, being the obvious geniuses that you are, that you installed it without my help. Now, when you first open audacity, it'll look like this:

To start our little project, simply click Project -> New Audio Track.

Step 4: Sine Wave Alert

Now, drop down the generate tab. From here, you have a multiple way of going about things.
What I did however, was recreate the Emergency Alert System warning tones. If you'd like to start the same way, click tone. It will ask you the type of sound, frequency, and duration. I kept the sound at sine. For the first of the two frequencies, set it to 853. Now add another track and make the next sine at 960. The duration of the two is up to you.

By this point, it should look like this (Warning: Don't try listening to it. You'll probably go deaf due to the extreme volume):

Step 5: Negative Amplifying

Now, if you want to listen to this, it is almost required that you lower the volume. To do this, highlight the track, go to effect -> amplify and set it to about -10.1
After you lower it, lower it again the same way. Then repeat on the other track. It should look like this by now:

Step 6: White Noise

Now for the actual distorted part. I typically start off this part by going to generate -> white noise. Make sure you set it to a new audio track first though. Now, you should also repeat the amplifying technique to this track as well. Remember -10.1 and do it twice.

Step 7: Gverb and Amplify

Now for the final part! You want to select the whole white noise track and go to effects -> Gverb. Now you'll really need to toggle the settings here. I had mine set to 2, 2, .65, .85, -7, -8.5, and -8.5. (See image below)

After that, you can use the amplify technique from before (how useful is that thing?) with the exception of only aplying it once. After that, Gverb and amplify again. From there, I typically highlight random sections of the white noise to gverb amplify.

Step 8: Rape the Ears of the World

That is basically all I know on this topic at the time being. If I ever find out more tricks, I'll add them in here. But really, you have the whole internet at your disposal, surely you can't rely on just me? Now go apply this to your project!


If you'd rather just hear an example of the finished project, here it is: First One I Made